Jessica Higgins
AIR CONDITIONING
Saturday 4th April
17:00 — 19:00
So now we might imagine the woman waiting for her mojito. She’s back at the bar under the faulty air conditioning. The feint buzz of something stuck in its mechanism ricochets quietly around the room. She feels the artificial air sneaking under her blouse. It spreads across her body and licks her skin. She quite likes it here, actually. A private little performance, just for me, she says. Like an I, sneaking in the periphery of my vision, she notes. She thinks about making conversation with the bartender. She might explain the funny thing that happens when the ambiance hiccups and its points of contact get too close. She might explain the ways the cool breeze tickles the hairs in her ear like a whisper.
Please join us for a public reading and demonstration of AIR CONDITIONING, a new performance script developed by Jessica Higgins while in residence at The Writer’s Room.
AIR CONDITIONING continues an interest in the performed qualities of ‘usefulness’, where the fiction of the script is taken literally — as a written text for a play, film or broadcast. Taking a speculative slant, the complicated ‘auto’ of the narrated first, second or third person seeks its manifestation in atmospheric control systems, water ingress, condensation bricks and an unfortunate and a yet-to-be-named organism.
The performance will begin somewhere around 17:30 and last for roughly half an hour. It will be bookended by a display of working materials installed throughout the space. Refreshments will be provided. Please note that the event will be recorded.
Please let a team member know if you do not wish to feature in any documentation.
The Writer’s Room, 35 Britannia Row, London, N1 8QH
Jessica Higgins is an artist and writer working at the intersections of text, performance and the moving image. Paying particular attention to language as a relational material, she uses methods of (auto)biography, fictioning and vocal experimentation, alongside collage, diagramming and prop making to produce textual narratives which are brought to bear in live performances, films and publications. She has shown her work at Cafe Oto (London); Fluxus Museum (Paros); 20 Albert Road (Glasgow); Radiophrenia (Glasgow); Castlefield Gallery (Manchester); Edinburgh Art Festival; Glasgow Film Festival; LUX’ Artist Moving Image Festival; Supernormal Festival; David Dale Gallery (Glasgow); The Bower (London) and Glasgow International Festival. Her writing has been published by The Grass is Green in the Fields for You; MAP Magazine; Tenderbooks, Counterflows Festival, Nothing Personal, TACO! and Publication Studio London.
Photographs of "Central Heating" by Jessica Higgins at the Writers' Room Saturday 4th April.(Click to enlarge)
